Discussion Anti-Pattern: Ideological commentary about linked news stories

discussion-anti-pattern-ideological-commentary.md

Discussion Anti-Pattern: Ideological commentary about linked news stories

So many discussion forums are broken in so many ways.

Antipattern Pattern

1. Someone posts a link to a news story.
2. Subsequent comments pick a side and argues in favor of it.

Below, I will explain why this is an anti-pattern.

Antipattern Example

1. News article about striking workers
2. Various comments support different sides

Human Nature

This pattern isn't suprising:

• People have values and ideological stances.
• People are often bothered by things they read about online.
• People often want to talk about fairness and right versus wrong.

Benefit to the participants?

But do the participants benefit from this pattern?

I don't think so. I would claim there is little, if any, benefit to the participants.

Nevertheless, this pattern persists because:

• it is a tempting failure mode for participants
• controversy attracts interest, so the platform benefits (it drives up "engagement")

Participant Goals?

What do the participants want to accomplish? If participants want to...

• bond or form community or organize for action ...
• persuade others of their point of view ...
• sharpen their rational thinking skills ...

... there are better ways.

Claim: there is no meaningful ultimate purpose that is well served by this anti-pattern. It is a collective failure mode.

System Factors

These are not mutually exclusive:

• The discussion forum itself has design flaws.
• The discussion forum has inadequate moderation.
• The discussion forum has misaligned interests (for example, it has a financial model that does not serve the needs of the participants)
• Some participants are acting contrary to the community norms.

In this context, it is usually pointless to assign blame to individuals. Instead:

• assess the system mechanisms (look at the parts and how they relate to each other)
• ask "Do you really think it would be any different if you started afresh with a new set of participants?"

In other words, don't blame the end result on the particular behaviors you see. (How often do you hear people complaining that a particular email listserv has become unmanageable? Or overrun with spam?)

Summary: Understand how a system shapes and molds individual behaviors.

Norms are unavoidable

When you launch a discussion forum, you cannot avoid setting norms.

Claiming that "anything goes" is itself a norm!

The discussion forum designer is hardly a powerless victim of fate. When you think about human nature, common failure modes are rather predictable.

Choose a design that matches your goals.

Do not abdidate responsibility for the community you foster (or that you let fester).